The prior art is already aware of various configurations of vises which are used in industrial environments for purposes of holding workpieces which can be machined while being held. The type of vise under consideration is generally that which includes a V-block mounted on a support base and having a movable jaw which moves toward and away from the V-block for purposes of clamping a workpiece between the V-block and the movable jaw. The V-block of course has a V-groove for the nesting of the workpiece which is generally cylindrical in shape.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,472,040 and 2,492,558 and 2,515,877 and 5,172,896 and 4,005,945 all show vises which have V-blocks with a movable jaw for pressing a workpiece into the V-groove of the V-block. However, these vises do not have a reversible type of V-block which is the subject of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,071,289 and 3,281,059 both show vises with reversible V-blocks which have V-grooves of different sizes therein. Those two prior art showings do not disclose a vise with an invertible V-block which is flanked on opposite sides by the base piece, for alignment and security, and which shoulders on the base piece for supporting the block and its workpiece against the force of working. Still further, those prior art showings differ from the present invention in that they do not inter-relate the base piece and an invertible V-block such that the two different V-grooves shoulder different manners on the one base piece of the vise for presenting the two different grooves at different locations relative to the movable jaw. That is, in the present invention, the movable jaw can have its linear displacement for moving toward and away from the workpiece, and that displacement accommodates the respective size of the V-groove which is at that time presented to the movable jaw. In that manner, the present invention provides for accommodation of workpieces from one-half inch up to two inches, but simply by utilization of only one V-block which is invertible and there is still clearance between the V-block and the movable jaw for purposes of receiving the two inch diameter workpiece, for example.
That is, the present invention provides a vise which has the base piece for mounting onto a machine or work support or the like and which has the movable jaw with actuator means inter-related between the base piece and the movable jaw and then which also has the invertible V-block supportable on the base piece in two different positions to present two different V-grooves faced toward the movable jaw for accommodating workpieces of different sizes.